Today we say goodbye to the very actor who has since passed on, Bob Hoskins. He died from pneumonia and not to mention lost his bout with Parkinson's Disease. He was 71. Hoskins, who is a British actor, was best known for speaking in a thick, Cockney accent, whether its speaking in the old queen's English or with an American accent, mostly from Brooklyn. I don't know much about some of the other movies he did before retiring, but I know him for three characters he was best known for. He was Mario in the live action Super Mario Bros. movie (which he admitted that is not one of his best work, but when I see the movie again one day, I will watch it in memory of him), Smee from the re-telling of the Peter Pan story, Hook and most importantly and the most famous role he is best known for was the part of Toon Detective, Eddie Valiant from the hit live-action/animated hybrid, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And why Eddie Valiant, you ask? As we all know, Eddie Valiant is a private detective, who specializes on cases that involves Toons. He and his brother, Teddy formed their own detective agency to help with Toon cases until Teddy's death by the hands of a deranged toon, who was revealed to be Judge Doom, red eyes, squeaky voice and all that. Anyway, because of that, he went into heavy drinking and does small time cases until Marvin Acme was killed and Roger Rabbit was accused of a crime he didn't commit. Despite his xenophobia towards Toons after Teddy's death, Eddie defended Roger no matter what. Eventually, he cleared him of murder charges, exposes Judge Doom's insidious plot to kill off all Toons and saved all of Toontown, while at the same time, regaining his faith in Toons and his brother Teddy found peace, now that Judge Doom has been, how should I say, "Dipped." In a sense, Eddie Valiant was the original Animation Crusader.
Where am I going with this, you say? Well, let me put this in a fan fiction kind of way. After saving Toontown, Eddie continued to do Toon cases. He became so devoted to all Toons, not just the domestic ones but the foreign ones, he wanted all Toons to have the same equal rights as us common folk. Unfortunately, the bureaucrats at Washington D.C. shot down his proposal to give Toons the same rights as us, but they see Toons as just that, a minority, a joke if you will. Valiant's plea felt on deaf ears, and the those bureaucrats made him a laughing stock. Afterwards, he went back to heavy drinking. He died a broken man. He died fighting for what I believed in, just like I am today. Eddie's fight for the rights for all Toons mirrors that of what I am fighting for, the rights for all animation. Not just the American hand drawn cartoons, but also Japanese anime, claymation, CGI, marionation (puppet animation) and so on and so forth. The bureaucrats that made Eddie a broken man are the same ones in real life, that are still persecuting animation today. Them, along with the corporate executives and the moral guardians who think animation as a whole is a cancer that needs to be cut out.
I have a confession to make. I know shouldn't tell you about it but...seeing people like Bob Hoskins, James Avery, Mickey Rooney, and the Ultimate Warrior dying makes me sad because...I am missing out on the things I want to go or meeting the people I want to meet...especially Jodi Benson.
Let me tell you a story. There was this girl named Sara, who biggest dream was to meet Tony Jay, another British actor, mostly known for voice acting with roles like Virgil from Mighty Max, Megabyte from ReBoot, Chairface Chippendale from The Tick, Lord Dregg from the final season of the original TMNT cartoon and Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She was a big fan of his work and wanted to meet him, you know, share stories, sign autographs, all that jazz. Until one day, her dreams of meeting Mr. Jay were shattered, when he died due to complications from a surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on his lungs. Though I haven't spoken to her since then, but she was devastated over this. And what this got to do with me, you ask? Ever since 2006, after I bought and watch to Platinum Edition DVD, my biggest goal in my life was to meet Jodi Benson, so I could finally put all this, the pain of avoiding watching The Little Mermaid and my father's passing, behind me. But with so many famous people dying, the chances of meeting her are slim to none, but mostly none. I know death is a natural thing, but this is more important than all the games and anime combined. If Jodi Benson dies, all this I worked hard to do, including that scrapbook for Karen Bernstein (Sailor Mercury), the script for a My Little Pony special for Grayson Bruce, and everything in between, would be all for naught, it would be all in vain. If she dies, everything means nothing to me.
Anyway, in closing, here's to you, Bob. Thanks for the memories and all the laughs. As for the person you are best known for, this should be written in his tombstone:
"Here lies Eddie Valiant: Toon Detective and the first of a breed of Animation Crusader. "Here's to the pencil pushers. May they all get lead poisoning, huh?""
Godspeed.
(TAPS plays)
Robert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr.
October 26, 1942 - April 29, 2014
This is has been a ACF special report.
3 comments:
Another very big loss. I remember first seeing him in Who Framed Roger Rabbit as well as the live version of the Mario movie. Really excellent eulogy for him RekkaDragon. ^_^
Thank you. But I'm afraid I got more bad news. No sooner after Bob Hoskins dies, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (the voice of Alfred from Batman the Animated Series and Dr. Octopus from the 90s Spider-Man cartoon) has died as well. This world is full of many people I like to meet and one by one, they all die. I am missing out. :(
That's another depressing loss. I watched both those cartoons and remember both those characters he played. He was very talented.
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